MONTREAL — The appeal of extra-virgin oil, which boasts good flavour and health benefits, has been known by chefs for years. Perhaps, unknown is the high level of olive oil fraud being perpetuated with the importing and re-labelling of lesser quality product.
“Where there’s the opportunity for economic gain, there will be those trying to make a buck,” Ben Roffey, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) acting manager of compliance, told the Montreal Gazette in a feature story. “We can’st test every bottle of olive oil that comes into Canada.”
It seems a handful of Canadian importers have already been fined for blending small amounts of olive oil with cheap refined oils and labelling it as the more pricey “extra virgin” oil, reports the newspaper. More specifically, a 2007 CFIA report found that 15 of 45 samples of the stuff pulled from Canadian store shelves had been misrepresented.
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